Today we follow up our albums of 2016 list with the much more interesting list of our 101 favorite songs of the year. Featuring a couple of inventive flips of Shangaan Electro and Tropicália samples in the top 3, the powerful opening missive from A Tribe Called Quest's first album in nearly 20 years, an old Radiohead love song, multiple jams each from Frank Ocean, Danny Brown, and Carly Rae, undeniable breakthrough singles from Whitney, Mitski, Maggie Rogers, and The Homie, another strong showing from TX's own S U R V I V E boys (whose massive year culminated this morning in 2 Grammy noms in the same category), and many more incredible and essential tracks that helped us all make it through this pathetic excuse for a year. Hit play on that 6 hour spotify playlist + check the full list below:
It may or may not be that time yet, but here is the highly subjective list of our 60 favorite albums -- too long, I know, but we could have gone much deeper -- from an unfathomably weird, incredible, terrifying 2016. It was a year marked by loss and uncertainty, and that might be why music felt more monumental to us than ever. Thanks for sticking with us for another year. Check the full list + a lovingly curated four-hour Spotify playlist below, and as always, we'd love to hear about your favorites that we might have missed.
Following yesterday's albums of the year post, here are our favorite songs from the first half of 2016. Check the list below, and keep up with our running songs of 2016 spotify playlist, which we're updating just about every week.
As we approach the midway point of what has been an overwhelming year for new music, here's the ever-evolving list of our favorite records of (roughly) the first half of 2016. Favorite songs of the year (SO FAR) coming later this week:
As our lists grow more and more arbitrary, we present our favorite remixes of 2015. Increasingly rare is the remix that adds to and/or outshines the original, becoming its own essential jam in the process, as opposed to just another fleeting and ultimately forgettable PR gimmick. We feel like these accomplished that:
No one cares about your label's video budget in 2015. The music vids that we found most moving and memorable this year were, in most cases, simple (with a few glossy and/or cinematic exceptions), powerful, often self-directed visual interpretations of our favorite songs. Also featuring one brilliant video made of found footage that seems to have been effectively scrubbed from the internet forever. Here are our favorite music videos of the year:
Following last week's Albums of 2015 list, here are our favorite songs of the year: we went deeper than ever this time out, and while 111 tracks might seem like a lot to love in any given 12 month span, I feel like the list is a pretty accurate representation of just how unreal 2015 has been for new music. Featuring multiple entries from Grimes, Jamie xx, Young Thug, Kendrick Lamar, Chromatics, Erykah Badu, Beach House, TOPS, and Cindy Lee, and spanning from underground Russian dance music and soaring Norwegian pop to incendiary west coast rap and inspired Texas soul, and just about everywhere in between. Check out the full list below, right after you hit play on that nearly 7-hour-long Spotify playlist:
Nothing more subjective than picking your favorite Young Thug song in a year when the absurdly prolific rapper seemed to release a new mixtape, collab, or random-ass potential hit every week, so here are our personal top 5, at least until ThuggaXWapp drops (spoiler: at least 4 of these will be on our songs of 2015 list). No wrong answers in this case, so let us know what your list looks like, and if you're one of the last people on the planet still unable to get into Thugger — shout out to our SiriusXM show listeners — maybe this is a start? Polaroid of Young Thug and his daughter by Faith Silva.
We feel pretty confident proclaiming 2015 the best year for new music this decade, and we'd even go so far as to say it's been arguably our favorite year in the history of this site. So many stars seemed to serendipitously align this year — our 10th as a blog — for sounds that veered right into our own personal, sometimes insular little lane: the triumphant return of Grimes; the improbable meteoric rise of Leon Bridges from seemingly out of nowhere (i.e., right here in our own backyard); a sweet, thoroughly relatable, '90s-hip-hop-inspired record from Panda Bear (our favorite artist); twoBeach Housealbums in the span of two months; D'Angelo with probably the best show we've seen since the last time he rolled through town 15 years ago; Grouperstarted a pop group; the summer of Jamie xx; and on and on. If 2015 had seen the release of Dear Tommy and new music from Shabazz Palaces or Burial (all still possible, I suppose), our blog might have imploded.
With all of that said, I still feel like we went as deep as ever this year, and as always, there were some genuinely incredible hidden gems to uncover if you spent a little time digging. Let us know how your year went as you check the full list of our 50 favorite records of the year, and lose yourself in our nearly 3-hour-long spotify playlist:
With 2012 (and possibly humanity as we know it) nearing its end, we give you our 100 favorite songs of the year. This is always the best list to make, and we enjoy seeing your choices, so leave those too if you'd like. While you take it all in, hit play on this ridiculous 5+ hour Spotify playlist featuring (nearly) every song on the list. Check the full top 100 + download our 2012 year-end mix, then take it for a night drive, after the jump...
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